Psychometry is a term which was coined by Joseph Rodes Buchanan in 1842. The word is derived from the Greek words psyche, meaning "soul," and metron, meaning "measure." He coined this word in relation to an experiment in which he asked his students to identify drugs in vials merely by holding them. Their success rate was more than was statistically possible by mere chance and he published the results in his book, Journal of Man. Buchanan theorized that all objects have "souls" that retain a memory or give off an emanation. These emanations contained a sort of record of the history of the object which could be picked up and interpreted by the holder

This work intrigued an American Professor of Geology who was also a committed Spiritualist William F. Denton. He conducted experiments to see if psychometry would work with his geological specimens. These experiments led him to conclude that Psychometry was a "mysterious faculty which belongs to the soul and is not dependent upon the body for its exercise." He condensed his findings in a book called The Soul of Things: Psychometric Experiments for Re-Living History

In these tests it was his wife who frequently gave the greatest example of accuracy in psychometry. As an example he gave her a fragment of volcanic lava from Hawaii wrapped in cloth. On handling it she saw "an ocean of fire pouring over a precipice and boiling as it pours. I see it flow into the ocean, and the water boils intensely."

Hudson Tuttle wrote about the method and practice of Psychometry in his book Mediumship and Its Laws, 1900. This is an interesting section to read as it draws psychometry more into its current usage as a method of gaining information about the individual associated with the object in a psychic way.

One of the most famous practitioners in the recent past was Gerard Croiset born in Holland and living from 1909 – 1980. He began his psychic work while still a child when he was able to tell people their life history by just holding an object that belonged to them. For a time he eschewed this work but eventually returned to it and in 1949 Croiset first demonstrated his wonderful gift to the police. They asked him to describe any impressions he got from a sealed box. He correctly informed them that it contained a blood stained shoe belonging to a girl that had been killed. But even more impressively he described the scene of the crime, including details of how she was killed and a surname of 'Stevens'. The police were more than impressed with Croiset's ability and confirmed that they were holding someone by the name of Stevenson'.

Croiset went on to aid the police in many other cases including those of missing persons. The accuracy of his descriptions of various locations was amazing as was other information he was able to offer. He became well known for his gift, even appearing on TV and interviewed by the BBC. In Australia he came out to work on the infamous Beaumont children case but the information he produced was unable to bring about a break through in this still unsolved crime.

In all cases the psychometrist works with the energy which is on the object. In some cases that could still relate to the actual history of the object but in most cases now they use the energy in relation to the person associated with the item and to focus more upon this.

It has also extended to a range of closely related skills, of which flower reading is the one most seen. As long as the flower is held beforehand it will pick up energy from you, additionally when picking and selecting the flower you should concentrate your intent to add energy. The flowers are wrapped in tissue to prevent the different energies from blending as they await reading. After the flower has been read the reader checks the identity of the message recipient to establish whether the information was relevant.

Flower Reading is far more prevalent in Spiritualist Churches in Australia than anywhere else. It is unlikely that you will ever see it on a platform in the UK or USA where “overhead” connection to spirit is the normal. It will however be used in a training sense as it is an ideal way to help people move past the natural barrier to getting a psychic reading, let alone a Spirit connecting. Most people who pick up a flower and instinctively open their mind to intuition will pick up an impression.

There are different ways to read a flower. You can pick it up and give off the impressions you get immediately from the energy. This is the most frequent platform approach, with short sharp messages invariably psychic in origin from picking up this energy. Given more time this can be enhanced by a deeper reading, using the entire flower, working up the stem to give a life reading. Again this originates from the energy associated with the person. Because it can give detailed personal information it is better in a private reading.

At times the reader may make a further step in their readings and link to a spirit who wishes to contact the individual. In this case it moves from psychic to mediumship. The reader should then give as much detail about the spirit who, how old, how they passed, the connection to the person, uniquely identifying items then confirm the accuracy of this with the individual before giving the message.